Bhubaneswar: Students from various colleges and institutions in the city Friday presented innovative ideas for better urban life at a competition organised by Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in collaboration with UNFPA India.
Named as City Changer Lab, this competition invited each of the institutions to present two innovative ideas for better urban living in the city. The student groups were asked to come up with ideas on various socio-developmental themes such as bridging digital divide, solid waste management, improving urban living, safety and security of girls and women and care and support of elderly.
All the ideas submitted by different student groups of the institutions were presented before the panel. In a special presentation session Thursday, 35 proposals were submitted, along with physical models and demonstration by 11 institutes and universities in the city.
A total of 130 students participated in the programme. The jury panel included Dr Kapileswar Mishra, Principal, CIPET, City Engineer, BMC, Dwipayan Pattanaik, Deputy Zonal Commissioner (South-East), BMC, Binaya Dash, Assistant City Health Officer A. Dhumal, Transport Planner Rakshit P and Amaresh Dash from IBI Group.
Some of the interesting concepts presented by the student groups included ‘People’s city to Peepal city’, wherein the students advocated for massive plantation of peepal tree across the city, including the road dividers, as these trees provide oxygen in the night.
Another interesting demonstration was on Smart Dustbins which automatically compresses the solid waste in order to make space for more waste to be collected and also sends an alert to the authorities when the bin gets full.
Another group came up with the idea of various small interventions and methods for ensuring safety of women. The ideas included having chili as utility items for girls and women so that they can make use of them when in dangerous or unsafe situations.
Related to this, another interesting suggestion was to have specially designed bangles filled in with chili powder or having lipstick shaped chili sticks.
For the respite of trafficked girls and women who are often put up in small hotels and lodges, one idea suggested putting distress calling phone numbers in washrooms as well as on items like soaps and bed sheets in these places.
Some more interesting ideas included innovation in traffic management, solid waste management, concept of glowing bins to enable citizens to use bins even during evening hours, using cyano-bacteria for waste water management, mobile applications to enable citizens to identify areas needing immediate cleaning, installations of sanitary napkin vending machines in public toilets, public places, offices and malls, setting up of kiosks accessible for all in order to help bridge the digital divide, under water sensors in drains that would help BMC identify the areas of blockage.
The winners of this competition will be awarded at a state level youth conclave, scheduled to be organized mid-December 2017, wherein over 500 youths from across 70 colleges and universities of Bhubaneswar are expected to participate.
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